Finally, the Giant TCR Advanced Team is to be available in the US. I listed the TCR as one of my favorite bikes back in March, but at the time I was bummed that the integrated seatpost model was only available in Europe. Speaking of Europe, I am ready to add the new Scott bikes that were just shown at Eurobike to my favorites list. The Addict road bike features an all carbon (dropouts, bottom bracket shell, everything) frameset. With a frame weight of 790 grams (that’s slightly under 1.75 pounds), Scott was able to build up a 13 pound bike for the show. Nice! Too bad I don’t have an extra 11 grand lying around to drop on a new road bike. Scott also showed the Spark, a lightweight carbon full suspension mountain bike. The bike uses and integrated molding process, which means that the top tube head tube and down tube are all made in one piece. The frame weighs in at 3.9 pounds. Wow, that is really light for a full suspension frame. In fact, my first lightweight steel road bike frame weighed more than that.
The big new/old news from Cannondale at the show was the 30 mm bottom bracket. Cannondale has used the size for years, but at Eurobike they offered it up as an industry standard. Drawings and specs are available on the bb30standard website. It will be interesting to see who jumps on board. For some good commentary on the subject, check out this Guitar Ted post. Another interesting idea that Cannondale showed was the integrated stem steerer on the Carbon Rush mountain bike. Check out this 6 minute podcast video from BikeBiz for more info on that and several of the other products at the show.
Of course, Eurobike winding down means that Interbike is right around the corner. I can’t wait to see more new product at the biggest of the bicycle industry tradeshows.
Photo from cyclingnews.com
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